The Key to Stomping Your First Invert
By emerica625 • Mar 7th, 2011 • Category: Featured, How ToAs the season grows closer and closer, it’s time to man up and take your riding to the next level. I am going let you in on the secret to stomping your first invert: the tantrum. Special thanks to our incredible site admin, alteczen, for demonstrating perfect form and execution as he models the trick for us below.
Now, the first thing to think about when considering your first invert is how you execute a wake to wake jump. I hate to burst your bubble, but a tantrum might not be your best choice for a first invert.
For those of you who can consistently hold an edge through the top of the wake, i would suggest trying a h/s backroll as your first invert. This will come much easier for you. Does this mean that you can’t try a tantrum for your first invert? No, not at all, but like I said, a backroll will most likely come easier..
For those of you who struggle a little with holding an edge to the top of the wake, a tantrum will most likely come easiest.
The Trip Flip
The first thing you need to think about before attempting this trick is the approach. For a tantrum, you will use what is called a ‘trip flip’ edge to initiate the trick. The trip flip is exactly what the name says it is. You literally trip off the wake in order to initiate your rotation. I believe that in ‘The Book’ instructional series, they compare a trip flip edge to rolling backwards into a curb on rollerskates. What will happen when you hit the curb? The curb will trip you, and flip you. The difference between this and ‘tripping’ off the wake is that when you edge into the wake, and right before you hit the wake, you let off your edge, which will initiate the trip flip rotation.
Step 1:
You want to start by taking a seated, somewhat aggressive cut into the wake. I highly emphasize cutting in a seated position.
Step 2:
This step is easily the most important part of executing this trick. As you approach the wake in a seated position, once you are about a couple feet or so from the wake, you want to let off your edge, stand tall and flatten out. Really think about standing tall out of that seated position, and digging in with your toes in order to initiate the trip.
Step 3:
This is the part where most people mess up. When coming into step two, most people think you have to ‘huck’ the flip, and physically throw your body into the tantrum. WRONG. If you trip correctly, you shouldn’t even have to worry about the flip. The wake will do this for you. After all, this is the whole point of the trip flip, and if you trip your tantrum correctly, as displayed, it will result in a straight up pop.
Once you come off the wake, concentrate on looking over your rear shoulder. A lot of people try and flip straight back and get hung up. Remember that you land edging away from the boat, so you need to land with your board at an angle to the boat, which is why you NEED to throw your head over that back shoulder.
Step 4:
Now, as you come around, you should think about spotting your landing. If your head is looking over your back shoulder as I explained in the last step, you should be in an ideal position for this. Spotting your landing is not easy at first. It takes some getting used to, but your ability to spot the landing so easily is what makes the tantrum such an easy invert.
Step 5:
At this point you should be thinking about spotting your landing, and getting stoked, cause your just about you ride away from your first invert!
Step 6:
Once you’re about to land back on your feet, think about edging out from the boat right when you land. Don’t land flat. You need to keep cutitng out with the boat to keep your momentum going.
And that’s it! You just rode away from your first invert!
emerica625 is one sweet looking dude.
All posts by emerica625
can you do an article on a bunny hop to fakie? i need to put that one in my bag of tricks, but need some instruction.
Good article on the tanny. The rolling into a curb backwards analogy puts the trick into a better perspective for me. Will be the first trick I learn this year. Thanks Cincywake!
This was a nice article and great pics to go with it. I had a chance to browse around your site a few weeks ago and it was pretty cool.
Keep it up!
Myself and a buddy had the site mentioned above. We haven’t updated it for years. We are about to get the ball rolling again. It would be nice to link together down the road.
Cheers,
Rob Kocher